Your most spectacular travel photos

Updated 9:09 PM ET, Wed December 18, 2013

Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Take a look at the best travel photos featured by CNN iReport this year. Roberta Cucchiaro says she was overwhelmed by the beauty she found while traveling across Xinjiang, China. "Every corner I turned, I could find a different scenery. From the Himalayan chain to beautiful lakes and rivers, to the desert and flat lands."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – In January, George Jones visited Muir Woods National Monument on the Pacific Coast of California, just north of San Francisco. "When the sun broke through the treetops, the fog warmed and it began to rise, giving us a spectacular view," he said.

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Batchuluun Amrita photographed camels in the Umnugobi province of Mongolia. He says one of the highlights of visiting the Gobi Desert was the peacefulness. "You can rest yourself without any worries."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Raimonda Ronkute says this photograph left her speechless. It was taken in the southern part of Alaska in the Kenai Fjords on the way to Fox Island. "It was one of the numerous rocks of Kenai Fjords; however, (it was) covered with sea lions. The trees on top of the rock and fog behind it seemed incredibly memorable."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Michael Steverson came across this scene in the Xingping fishing village in China, where fishermen train cormorants to catch fish in lakes and rivers. "This was actually a difficult shot to get," he said. "I'd been trying for years to be at the right place and right time. We were able to pull off this dusk shot at the last minute."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Daniel Surette photographed a turtle underwater near a barrier reef off the island of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos. "The turtle was known to hang around the bed of sea-grass," he said. "And as long as I didn't get too close, he let me tail him for a while, (allowing) me to snap a few close-ups."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Kruti Rajiv Dalal watched dawn break during a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, Turkey. "It's hard to sum up the experience in words," she said. "But the first one that comes to mind is that it was surreal."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Justin Ng used a long exposure on his camera to capture the Eta Aquarid Meteor over Mount Bromo, one of the active volcanoes in East Java, Indonesia. "The meteor left a glowing trail that lasted for a few seconds," he said.

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – This was the view from Abdel Hamid Zein's 50th floor apartment in Dubai, about 650 feet above the ground. "It is foggy in Dubai on rare occasions and usually lasts for two to three hours in the morning," he said. "For me it was quite impressive because it's not every day you wake up and you find yourself above the clouds."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – While on a second honeymoon in Europe, Christopher Foltz and his wife visited Positano off the Amalfi Coast of Italy. "I had never been to Europe and my wife has been to Italy several times, but never to the Amalfi Coast," he said. "So this was something we were able to share together, a new moment."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – A "leg spinner" paddles across Inle Lake in Myanmar. The unique style of paddling involves using one leg to power the boat while balancing on the canoe's edge with the other, freeing up the hands for fishing. "It is very interesting and beautiful to watch as it takes incredible balance and coordination," J. Grant Trammell said.

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Anneliese Possberg and her husband, Claus, shot this still image as part of a time-lapse captured over several days in mid-February. "Since I was for the first time in Sweden some years ago I was fascinated by the magic of the aurora borealis," she said.

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – Matthew Burke shot this dramatic lightning strike from his Manhattan apartment window. "The brunt of the storm itself was intense but short," he said. "There was very strong rain and wind for about 15 minutes, at which point the rain cleared and the lightning show began."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – A fishing boat winds through icebergs and fog on its way to port in Ilulissat, Greenland. "It really was beautiful," Jeffrey Swensen said. "Piloting a boat through that ice seems to require a great deal of patience."

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Your most spectacular travel photos15 photos

Your best travel photos – While serving with the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan, Pachari Lutke flew over Kabul on a trip from the base in Bagram. "There are certain images that show that, even though we all consider Afghanistan a war-ravaged, poor country -- and it is -- there are still moments of beauty to be found here," he said.